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SEPTEMBER 7,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:40 P.M. ET: 

THE CLOWNS ARE AT IT AGAIN – FROM FOX:    The social studies curriculum for seventh graders in Texas learning about the Alamo could reportedly face some new changes, at least one of which has drawn the ire of the governor.  Removing the word “heroic” to describe those who protected the Alamo was among the items included in a report penned by an advisory panel to the State Board of Education on how to structure the curriculum, Dallas News reported on Friday.  As it stands now, curriculum phrasing of the topic is the “siege of the Alamo and all of the heroic defenders who gave their lives there,” according to the outlet.
However, the word in question was reportedly described as being “value-charged” and the panel has suggested doing away with everything except the “siege of the Alamo.”  Republican Gov. Greg Abbott took a firm stance on the proposition, arguing that the “political correctness in our schools” needed to “stop.”
“Stop political correctness in our schools. Of course Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were ‘Heroic’!” Abbott said in a tweet.  The left has infiltrated everywhere. 

A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Democratic Senator Kamala Harris referred to SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s pocket Constitution as “that book you carry” on Thursday.
Harris was listing what she believes to be unenumerated rights that are not explicitly listed in the U.S. Constitution and asked Kavanaugh which ones he would get rid of.  “I’m gonna ask you about unenumerated rights,” Harris said. “‘Unenumerated rights’ is a phrase that lawyers use but I wanna make clear what we’re talking about. It means rights that are protected by the Constitution even though they’re not specifically mentioned by the Constitution.” “So they’re not in that book that you carry,” she said derisively.
Kavanaugh replied to Harris’s assertion with a smile.  “The Constitution — it is in the book that I carry,” Kavanaugh retorted.  Kamala wants to be president.  If she gets there, she'll take an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  She won't mean it.

WHAT A MOVIE! – FROM DAILY MAIL:  The Trump administration has trimmed the list of White House officials who could have possibly penned the blistering New York Times op-ed published this week, an insider has revealed.   A source close to the White House told CNN Friday that the hunt for the op-ed's anonymous author is now zeroing in on 'a few' individuals, with counselor Kellyanne Conway revealing that President Donald Trump believes the writer is from the national security sector of the government. The insider said Trump remains 'obsessed' with nailing the 'sick person' responsible - while his chief of staff John Kelly tries to talk the president into letting it go, fearing that Trump's repeated calls to reveal the author have drawn more attention to the unfavorable editorial itself.  Why doesn't the president just consult the real experts at sniffing out stool pigeons – organized crime?  I know a guy named Johnny Three Fingers who'd have this creep nailed in ten seconds.

September 7,  2018     Permalink

THE ECONOMY – MORE GOOD NEWS – AT 2:30 P.M. ET:  Jobs, jobs, jobs.  From MarketWatch: 

The numbers: The United States created 201,000 new jobs in August, keeping the unemployment rate at an 18-year low and generating the fastest increase in worker pay since the end of the Great Recession.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 200,000 increase in new nonfarm jobs.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was unchanged at 3.9%, the Labor Department said Friday.

The increase in hiring in August was another solid gain that reflects broad strength in an economy that accelerated in the spring and showed little sign of slowing down toward the end of summer.

The biggest news in the August employment report was a sharp increase in pay.

The average wage paid to American workers rose by 10 cents to $27.16 an hour. What’s more, the yearly rate of pay increases climbed to 2.9% from 2.7%, marking the highest level since June 2009.

What happened: White-collar professional firms filled 53,000 positions, bringing the total created over the past 12 months to more than half a million. These are the fastest growing jobs in the country.

And...

Big picture: The economy surged in the spring and is still growing rapidly as the fall approaches.

Most companies are hiring and layoffs have tumbled to a nearly 50-year low.

COMMENT:  The president can take that into the election campaign.  It's the most powerful argument he can make, and there's not much the Democrats can claim in reply.  The Dems will run against Trump the man, not Trump the president. 

Barack Obama was out on the campaign trail today, starting his drive on behalf of Democrats.  I'm not sure it will help them.  Obama's presence will simply remind the country how much better conditions are today than when he was in office.  I don't think he has much magic left.

September 7, 2018       Permalink

PRESIDENT BOUNCING BACK – AT 12:22 P.M. ET:  We have to be tentative about evaluating any poll result, but it does appear that Mr. Trump is starting to bounce back after a recent, and serious, decline.  He was as high as 50% approval in the Rasmussen poll in recent weeks, but as low as 44% earlier this week.  For two days running now, he's snapped upward.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove. 

The latest figures include 32% who Strongly Approve of how the president is performing and 43% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11.

COMMENT:  We'll soon see if other polls follow the upward trend.  Also, we'll be tracking the generic congressional poll, which turned sharply in the Democratic direction in the last few weeks, but can easily turn back.  Americans could not possibly be impressed by the Democratic performance at the Kavanaugh hearings, which almost came up to a junior-high level.

September 7, 2018       Permalink

DECISIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  Even for Nike.  This is a lesson for corporations who believe they can defy the public.  From Conservative Treehouse: 

Never before in the history of corporate branding decisions has a multi-billion dollar company had such a massive and swift drop of brand image as Nike.  The results from Morning Consult Intelligence, a firm that specializes in monitoring and measuring the brand image and reputation for thousands of major companies, reflects a massive drop in brand image across every single demographic.

We suspected there would be a diminishment of brand image, but nothing like the scale discovered within the polled data:

The report features over 8,000 interviews conducted among American adults, including 1,694 interviews pre-campaign launch (8/26/18 – 9/3/18) and 5,481 interviews post-campaign launch (9/4/18 – 9/5/18). Additionally, Morning Consult conducted a study among 1,168 adults in the U.S. about Nike’s ad and the decision to choose Kaepernick as the face of the campaign.

? Nike’s Favorability Drops by Double Digits: Before the announcement, Nike had a net +69 favorable impression among consumers, it has now declined 34 points to +35 favorable.

COMMENT:  Clearly, Nike is out of touch with its own country, kind of like the Democratic Party.  How did their executives make such a crazy decision?  Were the spouses of executives involved, as is too often the case?  Did they talk only to people who agreed with them politically?

Will their board of directors speak up, or will they fear accusations of racism?  That may be the key question.

September 7,  2018     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 6,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:  

BACK TO REALITY – FROM THE HILL:  Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) warded off a primary challenge on Thursday from political newcomer Kerri Evelyn Harris, throwing cold water on progressives’ hopes for another upset victory over a longtime incumbent.  Carper was projected as the winner by The Associated Press, winning with 64 percent of the vote after 72 percent of precincts had reported.  His triumph came two days after progressive Ayanna Pressley notched a stunning Democratic primary win over 10-term incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano (Mass.) in a Boston-area district.  Delaware ain't Massachusetts.  The "progressives" got a reminder of that tonight.

SHUT UP – FROM CNN:   Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, seizing on an explosive op-ed from an anonymous administration official, said Thursday that it's time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump office if top officials don't think he can do the job.  "If senior administration officials think the President of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren told CNN. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can't do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the President -- take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds ... Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's time for them to do their job."  If Warren thinks Mike Pence is going to recommend removal of President Trump, she's nuts.  The president may be brash, crude and loud, but there is nothing in his leadership to approach 25th Amendment requirements.

FROM THE ROYAL PALACE – FROM THE DAILY STAR:   PRINCE Charles has issued a warning over the rise of robotics – namely the rise of “part human, part machine” hybrids.  The Prince of Wales made the Royal intervention in a GQ magazine interview marking his forthcoming 70th birthday.  Charles said he "utterly" objected to the trend of people somehow becoming "part human, part machine”.  He was presented with the Editor's Lifetime Achievement Award for services to philanthropy at the GQ Men of the Year Awards.  The heir to the throne’s comments come amid the increasing popularity of robotics in every industry – including military, domestic and sex.  Well, those comments will certainly change the course of civilization, won't they?  Wasn't he Diana's husband?

September 6, 2018       Permalink

REMEMBER NORTH KOREA? – AT 7:25 A.M. ET:  Pretty important story, we think.  But it's been off the front page because there was so little opportunity for Trump bashing.  But the story is back.  From Fox: 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula amid a growing standoff with the United States, his state-controlled media reported Thursday after a South Korean delegation met him to set up an inter-Korean summit.

The statement from the Korean Central News Agency wasn't new information — Kim has repeatedly declared similar intentions before — but allows hopes to rise that diplomacy can get back on track after the recriminations that followed Kim's meeting in June with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore. The impasse between North Korea and the United States, with neither side seemingly willing to make any substantive move, has generated widespread skepticism over Trump's claims that Kim is intent on dismantling his nuclear weapons program.

The South Korean envoys who met Kim on Wednesday finalized the dates for a summit later this month between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the driving force behind the current diplomacy. Moon is seen as eager to keep the nuclear talks alive in part so that he can advance his ambitious engagement with the North, which would need U.S. backing to succeed. The date of the talks, which will come on the eve of a gathering of world leaders at the U.N. at the end of September, was to be released later Thursday.

Kim was paraphrased in the statement by his propaganda specialists as saying that it was "his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat."

COMMENT:   Well, we'll see.  At least we know we have a national administration that has a clear, stated objective, and will not agree to anything just to get a piece of paper.  Neville Chamberlain hasn't been in the White House for almost two years now.  Miss him?

September 6, 2018       Permalink

TODAY'S SURPRISE?  WELL, MAYBE – AT 7:15 A.M. ET:   The Delaware primary is today, and the hard left is all hot and bothered by the prospect of another upset victory.  From the Virginian-Pilot: 

As outbreaks of antiestablishment activism roil the Democratic Party nationwide, a veteran Delaware political leader who's never been beaten faces a primary election challenge from an insurgent who's never run for office.

Kerri Evelyn Harris, whose resume includes loading giant Air Force cargo planes, frying chicken at a convenience store chain and working as an auto body mechanic, is seeking in Thursday's Democratic primary to unseat three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, one of the most successful politicians in Delaware history.

"We absolutely are fighting for the soul of the Democrat Party," said Harris.

Carper, undefeated since 1976 when he was first elected state treasurer, is taking it in stride.

"It's not like I've never been primaried before," said Carper, who served five terms in the U.S. House and two as governor before being elected to the Senate in 2000.

Carper has a huge fundraising advantage, having raised more than $1.3 million this year as of mid-August, compared to a little more than $120,000 by Harris. He has far outspent her.

Harris is among a wave of young activist Democrats, emboldened by the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. They have sent shock waves through the party establishment around the U.S., starting in June with a New York primary victory by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, 39, riding an insurgent wave, scored a stunning victory last week in Florida's Democratic gubernatorial primary. And on Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley beat longtime Rep. Mike Capuano in a closely watched Democratic primary.

Now, it's the 38-year-old Harris' turn in the spotlight, a place she never expected to be.

Born in New York to a biracial couple, Harris attended high school in California before joining the Air Force. She worked as a loadmaster at Dover Air Force Base until 2008, when she was medically retired after suffering an adverse reaction to the anthrax vaccine. She then worked a variety of jobs and served on the state Human Relations Commission before becoming a political organizer.
Last year, after trying unsuccessfully to find someone to challenge Carper, she took on the job herself.

"This is a fight to prove that we are a party of the people," said Harris. She has painted Carper, 71, as an out-of-touch career politician doing the bidding of corporations and their political action committees.

Carper, meanwhile, sees himself as a centrist able to work in a bipartisan way.

COMMENT:  We'll be watching the returns tonight.  Most of the cases where "progressives" have unseated moderates have had extenuating circumstances that made the victories possible.  If a hard leftist can win in Delaware, that would be big news.  Odds are against it.

September 6, 2018       Permalink

YOU CAN BET ON IT – AT 7:05 A.M. ET:  They're already betting on who "anonymous" is, the presumed "senior administration official" who penned the hit piece against President Trump for The New York Times.  From the New York Post: 

Vice President Mike Pence – and “the field” – lead offshore bookmaking picks as the White House mole behind the anonymous bombshell New York Times op-ed blasting President Trump.

Pence was listed at 2-to-3 odds on the site My Bookie as the fifth column official who claims to be working behind the scenes to stop some of Trump’s policies that they find wrongheaded.

The biggest favorite, at 1-3 odds, is “the field,” someone not listed among the 18 administration officials listed by the Costa Rica-based operation.

“What tipped us off was `lodestar,’“ MyBookie head oddsmaker David Strauss said of Pence. “When you search members of the administration (who have used that word) only one name comes up – and that name is Mike Pence. He’s used in multiple speeches this year.”

The other 17 named potential moles, listed by MyBookie, are: Education Secretary Betsy Devos (2-to-1), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (4-to-1), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (4-to-1), chief of staff John F. Kelly (4-to-1), Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (5-to-1), Attorney General Jeff Sessions (5-to-1), Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (6-to-1), Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (6-to-1), Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (7-to-1) Labor Secretary Alex Acosta (7-to-1), HHS Secretary Alex Azar (8-to-1), HUD Secretary Ben Carson (8-to-1), VA Secretary Robert Wilkie (8-to-1), Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (10-to-1), Ivanka Trump (12-to-1) and Jared Kushner (12-to-1).

COMMENT:  So the whole Pence thing revolves around the fact that the word "lodestar," a rarely used word, appears in the hit piece, and is also used in speeches by Pence.

I really have serious doubts.  But, hey, you never know.  And there's also Pence's speechwriter. 

There are forensic software programs that compare writing styles.  I'd imagine they're being heavily used today. 

September 6,  2018     Permalink